Shot fired at 2 agents adds to recent rash of violent crimes

Shootings, a home invastion and a dragging death have kept police busy.

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — A shot fired at two occupants of an unmarked police car missed its mark and set off a pursuit on the South Side.

The shot was fired Tuesday afternoon after a member of the FBI/Mahoning Valley Violent Crimes Task Force gang unit and an agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives started following a dark red 1997 Cadillac on Firnley Avenue around 1:30 p.m.

Once the two men inside the Cadillac realized they were being tailed, they pulled over and the driver aimed a long gun, either a rifle or shotgun, and fired one shot. The passenger had his head out the window and was holding a handgun. No one was injured.

Two tires flattened on the unmarked cruiser as it backed over a curb. The officers inside did not return fire, police said.

Officers in marked patrol cars soon arrived and began a search for the Cadillac, finding it in the driveway of 745 W. LaClede Ave. at 1:50 p.m.

Members of the task force, U.S. Marshals fugitive squad and patrol officers set up a perimeter. Two men found in an upstairs apartment next door were taken into custody and then downtown for questioning by detectives. The men, ages 19 and 21, were released. The Cadillac, owned by a Nelson Avenue woman, was towed and held for detectives, the FBI and ATF.

Elsewhere, two Youngstown men who were shot in the parking lot behind the Coconut Grove, 3229 South Ave., around 7:30 p.m. Monday remained in St. Elizabeth Health Center. Robert Mills, 38, was in satisfactory condition and Matthew Cunningham, 41, in critical condition. A witness said one of the people involved was driving an older-model, white Cadillac.

The Detroit Avenue resident said she looked out her side window to see the victims standing next to Cunningham’s car in the back parking lot of Coconut Grove. She said she then saw the white Cadillac drive past the men slowly and someone in the car open fire. The car sped away on Lucius Avenue.

Several other witnesses who were inside the Coconut Grove as well as the nearby Evergreen Tavern said they also heard shots fired.

One witness said he called 911 after seeing Mills running from the back parking lot yelling that he’d been shot.

Police said they arrived on the scene to find Mills hunched over a pickup truck and bleeding heavily from a gunshot wound to the abdomen. He was unresponsive.

Several minutes later, police noticed Cunningham attempting to leave the parking lot. When officers tried to remove him from the vehicle, they noticed he had suffered two gunshot wounds.

Capt. Ken Centorame, chief of detectives, said police have been unable to speak to either victim.

“It’s difficult to know what happened when you can’t talk to the victims,” he said. “We’re talking to some witnesses right now.”

Centorame said detectives were out Tuesday canvassing the neighborhood for witnesses and clues as to what happened.

It may be weeks before the exact cause of death is known for the man dragged through a fast-food drive-through and along two city blocks early Saturday, said Centorame. The investigation began with a 911 call about 1 a.m. Saturday from a person in the drive-through at McDonald’s restaurant at South Avenue and Midlothian Boulevard, who told the dispatcher there was a body under the car in front of him.

City police have identified and impounded the car they believe was involved.

The Mahoning County Coroner’s office identified the victim as Andrew Culp, 22, of North Main Street, Columbiana. Witnesses said Culp may have been at the Utopia nightclub on Midlothian late Friday or early Saturday.

Culp’s body was sent to Cleveland for an autopsy to determine whether he died as a result of being dragged or was killed in some other manner.

Comments

"When southern Florida resident Nathan Radlich's house was burglarized recently, thieves ignored his wide screen plasma TV, his VCR, and even left his Rolex watch. What they did take, however, was a generic white cardboard box filled with a grayish-white powder. (That's the way the police report described it.)

A spokesman for the Fort Lauderdale police said that it looked similar to high grade cocaine and they'd probably thought they'd hit the big time. Later, Nathan stood in front of nu merous TV cameras and pleaded with the burglars: 'Please return the cremated remains of my sister, Gertrude. She died three years ago.'

The next morning, the bullet-riddled corpse of a local drug dealer known as Hoochie Pevens was found on Nathan's doorstep. The cardboard box was there too; about half of Gertrude's ashes remained.

Scotch taped to the box was this note which said: Hoochie sold us the bogus blow, so we wasted Hoochie. Sorry we snorted your sister. No hard feelings. Have a nice day."

Lets see. Around 1:30PM when all this started most people are working at a job. No mention of children so they weren't stay at home dads. Being that it wasn't a weekend we can't put the blame on a party that got out of hand. Soon counterculture will be the norm in Youngstown. Are we there yet?

Where is this Atown you speak of? Sounds like a beautiful place with flowing palm trees and a nice ocean breeze, thousands and thousands of mile away from Youngstown. Can anyone tell me how to get a plane ticket to Atown?

Silly....just like youngstown and residing community people. Lets just face the facts that Ytown and its surrounding townships are garbage. This place sucks.....no jobs...tons of crime...I'm going to make the smart leap and get the hell out of this rat infested town!

grump, takes a real idiot to assume that I live in Y-town! Actually I live in a much more relaxed, crime free place then A-town! I work in Y-town and see this stuff on a daily basis while your sitting back, getting fat, stuffing your face with potato chips writing your little stupid comments about everything that goes bad! Let me ask you this, what have you done to help out? NOTHING! I read all your comments cause they make me laugh that a grown man (I can assume) can take the way you do! TO A-TOWN! CHEERS!

OH YEA, FOR ALL YOU STILL TRYING TO FIGURE OUT MR. GRUMP AND HIS A-TOWN COMMENT, HE MEANS AUSTINTOWN WHICH BOARDERS Y-TOWN... OH WAIT AND IF I REMEMBER CORRECTLY A-TOWN (HIS SO CALLED CRIME FREE HOME) HAD AN OFFICER SHOT IN THE CHEST NOT TO LONG AGO! WAY TO GO GRUMP AND A-TOWN! WHAT A FREAK!

Oh my, poor Grump, have you not seen the handwriting on the wall? Y-Town is bad, which is causing a steady migration to the "burbs", even the criminals want to "step up"..Boadman is getting infestated, A-town is probably next and look out Canfield..your turn is coming! Before you know it, Youngstown will be the most desirable place to live!

Why didn't the officers return fire? If they were shot upon they would be justified.1:30 pm should also have given them a good look at the guys. I know if it were me, all I would have seen is the BFG (big friggin gun) pointed at my head, but these guys are supposed to be trained to look past that.

THANKS EVERYONE, I THINK THAT WE CAN ALL AGREE THAT GRUMP IS A TOTAL IDIOT! ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS CONTINUE TO LOOK AT HIS POSTINGS HE PUTS UP! CONTINUE ON GRUMP WITH YOUR STUPIDITY, AS IF I DON'T GET IT ENOUGH AT WORK EVERY SINGLE DAY! IT MAKES ME LAUGH